The Great Toy Robbery

This is a film sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada, a government agency that gives grants to film makers. While many wonderful cartoons have come out of this organization, there are always some lesser films--this is natural and unavoidable. I would place THE GREAT TOY ROBBERY in this lesser films category. The animation style is very simple, the frame-rate is low and the cartoon is very much a product of the times--the 1960s was an era of very cheaply made cartoons and the glory days of MGM, Disney and Warner Brothers were over--at least for now.

The film is about a gang in the old west that kidnap Santa and take all his toys. Later, a hero rides into town, beats up the gang and frees Santa. None of it is spectacular and I was left feeling very indifferent to the film.